1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for creating an interactive 3D visualization that indexes media and summarizes the indexed media.
2. Description of Related Art
Based on increases in conventional computing speed and resource management, three-dimensional media indices are just recently becoming viable means for indexing a large amount of related media. However, the complexity of the index and information about the indexed media conveyed by the three-dimensional indices is rather limited.
For instance, SGI FSN is a file system navigator with a 3D landscape visualization. Directories are placed in a hierarchical tree layout in the landscape. Each directory in SGI FSN is represented by a pedestal. The size of the files in the directory is proportional to the pedestal height and the file age is shown by color. Files are placed on top of the directory pedestals. Each file is represented by a box.
U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 10/756,397 describes a method for creating and updating interactive 3D visualizations of media indices wherein separate indices are located above and below a ground plane. The indices are organized in a table structure defined by two axes and provide links to the media that is indexed. Various visual characteristics of the indices reflect characteristics of the media that is indexed as well as various user defined or group defined information relating to the indexed media.
Perspective Wall is a 3D visualization that indexes files. It utilizes a 3D wall with three sections and displays card icons for the files. 3D/Rooms is a 3D index that has a 3D multi-level building floor plan in which users can select a research group and retrieve photos of members and their offices.
Finally, There are many visualizations of the World Wide Web using 3D landscapes. Most of these such as WWW3D, WebPath, and VR-VIBE use abstract geometric objects to represent documents. The Web Forager, utilizes a space that contains 3D bookcases and 3D books, that when opened, display the indexed Web pages.